mikeisthird

Please update your bookmarks, as I’ve moved from thirdplaceproject.com to mikeisthird.com. If you arrived here looking for answers on a specific topic,feel free to use the menu above or the search box below. Read on to hear why I’ve made the change:

It’s been nearly 22 years since I first embraced the call to serve God in some form of youth ministry. Over that time, I’ve spoken and sung at summer camps, youth groups, retreats, parish missions, youth rallies, and in schools. For about half of that time, I’ve sought to maintain a visible, online presence. That’s why in 2008, I launched the original version of this website – iamthird.ca.

There were a variety of reasons why this name was chosen: largely, a desire to summarize our life’s work as Catholic Christians: first of all, learning to love God “…with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37) and second, “to love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). It was these commandments of Jesus that Catherine de Hueck Doherty, the foundress of Madonna House, lived without compromise, and expressed in one simple statement: I am third. Simply put, this means that to follow Jesus is to embrace a life that places God first and our neighbors second… making our ultimate goal third place.

A few years ago, based on the fruits of my own prayer and some advice that I would be better equipped to serve if the site were a .com, we migrated everything over to thirdplaceproject.com. Part of the goal at that time was to assemble a group of people who would contribute not only to the site, but also to some of the other aspects of my ministry – notably speaking and music.

Two things led me to believe that a change was necessary. First of all, things didn’t unfold as I thought they might. I find myself most often speaking, singing, and writing largely on my own rather than as a part of a larger group (which a “project” would imply.) Second, it seems like I’ve lost something in going from iamthird to the thirdplaceproject: namely, that whenever I used mention that my site was “iamthird,” – students would ask why. This gave me the opportunity to explain, as above, why Catherine Doherty coined the phrase. For whatever reason, “Third Place Project” was either too formal or abstract sounding to elicit the same questions.

So, once again, I’ve moved. And I’m planning to make my permanent online home here at mikeisthird.com. All of my best articles about YouCat, scripture, and practical applications for our faith remain here. The name is short and sweet, and hopefully it will give me opportunities to explain to those whom I serve in speaking, writing, and singing our simple mission as Christians: to put God first, our neighbour second, and ourselves third.